Chapter 6:

Christmas Shopping

Ruby Simmons was tinkering around on Isabella's electric keyboard when Isabella walked into the apartment the two of them shared. Ruby was a curvy brunette with pale grey-green eyes. The two of them met on the first day of sixth grade. Ruby was a year younger, but had skipped the fifth grade. The two of them had become inseparable ever since, though Ruby was known to be pretty hot and cold on the best of days. While Isabella was toiling away on her music production degree, Ruby was two years away from getting her social worker degree.

She turned to Isabella, who was dropping her purse on the kitchen counter. Ruby stopped what she was doing and went into the kitchen, where Isabella was preparing herself a cup of coffee. "Crisis averted?" she asked.

Isabella froze, contemplating her answer. Then she shook her head, stirring sugar and coffee whitener into her mug. "Crisis averted? My crisis is just beginning," she retorted, turning to face her roommate. She took a sip of her coffee. The two of them walked into the living room and sat down the couch, a brown leather sofa that was older than Isabella. "I've gotten myself into a whole heap of trouble with this John Cena situation and I just can't walk away from it," she confessed.

"Did the crisis last night have anything to do with your unruly patron?" Ruby asked, resting her head on a hand. Isabella nodded.

"It had everything to do with him. I had to haul him out of the Cheetah Club last night. He was drunk, a little unruly and shut the place down," Isabella confessed. Ruby grimaced; she had been to the Cheetah Club a couple of times. The last time she went with a few friends from college. A few drunken men in their forties had groped and harassed her and a friend. It was the last time she went there. The Cheetah Club was known for being a meat market, where the desperate tried to hook up with the loose and equally desperate. Isabella ran a hand through her hair and groaned. "I mean, where is this guy's family? I mean, who just walks out on somebody who is struggling like this? God, he's so hurt and he's so defensive and it's just...it's so infuriating!"

"Did he tell the bar to call you?" Ruby asked. She knew that Isabella had given him their number. Nothing much ever got by Ruby. Isabella and Ruby told each other everything. They had always been that way with each other, more so when they had decided to become roommates.

"No. They found my number on his person. He wasn't even carrying a phone." She put her cup of coffee down on the coffee table and sat back, staring up at the ceiling. "The worst part about this whole situation is that he is beyond any sort of help that I can give him. I mean, I'm no therapist, and if I suggested that he look into getting some kind of help, he would lose his mind. If I ask a question, he clams up. He's just like a bomb waiting to go off."

"He sounds dangerous, Izzie."

"I don't know if he's dangerous," Isabella disagreed. "I barely know him, I mean, but he doesn't seem dangerous at all. I just think that he's been wallowing alone for so long that it's a hard change for him to know that somebody cares."

"I hope you know what you're getting into here."

"Oh, I don't have a clue," Isabella confessed. There was a beat of silence between them. "So when are you flying out to your mom's?"

"I'm not."

Isabella blinked. "What?"

"Yeah. Found out last night that our Christmas plans are shot to shit. Instead, she's running off to Vegas to get married to what's-his-face," Ruby said, crinkling her nose in distaste. Ruby's father had passed away in a car accident when she was five years old. Since then, it had been an endless string of boyfriends for Ruby's mother. Isabella had only met Ruby's mother a handful of times, and while she didn't have a problem with her, she agreed that Ruby's mother was immature and too eager to put her own happiness before her daughter's.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Rube. You know you can always come out to my parent's place."

"Do you think they'd mind?" Ruby asked. Isabella shook her head.

"Nah. I don't think so. Nobody should be alone on Christmas. Besides, you're family." Isabella stood and stretched. "Ugh. I really need to shower. Then I need to go to the mall and do some Christmas shopping. Did you want to come with?"

"Yeah. I still got a couple people to shop for."

"Okay. I'll just be a few minutes and then we can go." Isabella disappeared into the bathroom, a white room with counter tops that were cluttered with shiny bottles of mousse, makeup and other beauty products. Most of it was Ruby's; Isabella wasn't the type who styled her hair often. She hardly ever wore makeup, either. A little bit of eyeliner and gloss was all she usually went for.

Cleaning John's house made her feel grimy and dirty. She noticed a spot of spilled whiskey on the edge of her sweater. Taking it off quickly, she tossed it into the tall wicker hamper beside the shower. Instead of being angry and indignant that he had thrown her out and shown her no gratitude for picking him up and cleaning up his house, she found she felt nothing but pity and sadness for him. She knew that he was spending his day drinking himself back into the stupor he had slept himself out of. She wondered how he could live like that. More than that, Isabella wondered how the people around him could be okay with him living like that.

When she got out and dried off, Isabella changed into a pair of blue jeans and a red and white striped sweater. She borrowed Ruby's foundation - a rarity - to hide the bags underneath her eyes. By the time Isabella came out of the bathroom, Ruby was slinging her purse over her shoulders and ready to leave. It struck Isabella as odd, since Isabella was usually ready first and had to wait for Ruby. There were times where Isabella had been forced to impose deadlines on Ruby because she was taking too long.

They took Isabella's car to the mall. Ruby changed the radio station to the local top forty station. "Do you think he's going to make it through this?" Ruby asked. Isabella sighed.

"I'd like to think that he will. He's still got so much to live for and so much to offer. I just wish I could make him see that." She turned the car into the crowded mall parking lot and killed the ignition. They got out. "I want to stop by CinnaBon. Do you have any objections?"

"Nope. Not if you're getting extra cream cheese frosting," Ruby told her. Isabella scoffed.

"Is there any other way to have a cinnamon bun?" she asked rhetorically. Isabella and Ruby laughed as their boots crunched on the snow in the parking lot. They wiped their feet off on the mat outside and walked through the double glass doors that slid open. "Who do you still have left to shop for, Rube?"

"Mom and Grandma."

"I really can't believe your mother," Isabella said with a shake of her head. "She blows this huge gasket about having you for Christmas every year, and now this year she's taking off to get married in Vegas."

"I knew it was a matter of time before she married the troll. She's been with him six years now. That's a record by her standards." Isabella bit back a snicker. There was a pause. "Is Trey going to be making it back for Christmas this year?"

"No," Isabella answered. Trey was her older brother, living overseas working at the American embassy in Lebanon. "I guess there's some stuff going on. It's too bad. I was really looking forward to seeing him."

Their first stop was to an independently owned kiosk that made and sold homemade jams and knickknacks. Isabella bought a gift set that came with five different kinds of jams and a make your own scone kit for her grandparents.

Their next stop was to Hot Topic. She was looking for clothing for Miranda, Isabella's sister. They separated to look through the racks, at anything that could be seen as Miranda's style. Ruby approached with a glittering black halter in hand. The sides were held together with safety pins. She held it up. Isabella nodded. Ruby stood beside Isabella and watched as her friend rifled through the rack. "I know that look, Izzie. What's going on in that screwy little head of yours?"

"He has a shrine to her in his house," Isabella answered. Her eyes fell on a pair of black jeans with rhinestones down the side. She grabbed them, knowing her sister would love them. She looked over at Ruby. "I just can't let him have Christmas alone this year. It feels wrong to leave him alone."

"Doesn't he have a family to go to?" Ruby asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"I think he's pushed them all out of the picture," Isabella confessed. "When I ask about his life, he gets belligerent and I get thrown out of his house, so I don't really have a lot of answers." She rested the jeans over her right forearm. "I promised myself last night I wouldn't walk away from him until he's back where he was before."

"Is that possible, Izzie?"

"I don't know, Rube. But I can't turn my back on him. He obviously needs help."

"You always were a bleeding heart, Bell," Ruby said with a shake of her head. "So you invite him over for Christmas. Would your parents be okay with that?"

"I don't know. Probably. I know I can't let him drink himself to death on Christmas. It just doesn't feel right." She looked around the store and exhaled. "I should probably find a present for him. What does etiquette dictate in this situation?"

"That he doesn't have the bar call you at two o'clock in the morning for a ride home." Isabella rolled her eyes. Ruby threw her hands up in exasperation. "How the hell should I know, Izzie? I've never been stupid enough to get myself stuck in a situation like this."

"Thanks, Rube."

"You still love me." Isabella rolled her eyes and the two of them went over to the cashier's counter. "If you're sure he won't explode and make an ass of himself, then I'd say do it. Invite him. Just don't expect him to get you anything. He seems like he's got his head up his ass."

"I'm not expecting anything, Ruby. Whatever happened obviously happened around this time of the year. It just seems like the best thing I can do here is give him some extra compassion and understanding right now." She thought about the things he had said when he was drunk hours before. It cracked her heart down the middle.

"Just be careful. From what you're telling me, it seems like no one quite knows what he's capable of doing. If you want him to come for Christmas, though, you should talk to your parents before you talk to him."

"You're right. He'll probably say no, but it's the thought that counts, right?" Isabella said with a tight smile. Ruby nodded. They paid for their items and left the Hot Topic. They decided to stop for lunch in the crowded food court. Ruby bought herself some poutine from New York Fries, while Isabella got herself a chicken teriyaki sandwich from Subway.

"Don't resign yourself to defeat, Isabella. Maybe he's just looking for someone to extend the invite to him." Ruby shoveled a forkful of poutine into her mouth. "I mean, by all accounts, it does look like he's kind of trying to climb out of his little hole but failing."

"I don't get why his family isn't there with him."

"He probably pushed them out. Think about it: the man is a volatile and hostile drunk. Putting up with that for so long is bound to drive anyone away. Nobody wants to get sucked into that vortex of negativity. Or - and I doubt you want to hear this, but I'm going to spit it out into the universe anyway - they're all resigned to the fact that he's probably going to drink himself to death and there's nothing they can do about it, so they're just going to cut their losses."

"That's awful."

"You never know anyone's reasons, Izzie. Grief is one of the most fucked up things anyone can deal with. It makes people act out of character. This guy, John Cena, I did some reading this morning, it sounds like he's had the weight of the world on his shoulders for a lot of years."

"Did you read anything about a woman named Lisa?" Isabella asked. Ruby nodded, chewing on another bite of food.

"Yeah. She was his fiancée. She died in a car accident while he was out of town at some pay-per-view. I guess the story that night was that he had been fired from the WWE as a result of everything with the Nexus. He just never came back."

"He says he misses it in the WWE. He's not in the right mental or physical shape to go back, though," Isabella confided. She sighed. "It hurts seeing someone struggle like this. He's so despondent and he's just given up. I don't think I've ever lived through something as heartbreaking as last night."

"Did you want me to come with you when you ask him?"

"I should be fine, Rube. He won't hurt me. He's had plenty of opportunity to. I think he just needs someone to be there and listen to him when he's ready to talk. He's just too stubborn to talk right now." Ruby looked doubtful. Isabella was exasperated. "It'll be fine, Rube. Just because he was a professional wrestler doesn't mean he has the words 'woman beater' stamped across his forehead."